OXFORD: Roger Bannister returned to the track where he broke the 4-minute barrier for the mile 58 years ago, walking slowly but smiling broadly as he carried the Olympic torch across the finish line on Tuesday in a powerful moment just 17 days before the start of the London Games.
The 83-year-old Bannister walked 30 yards along the track, holding the Olympic torch aloft in his left hand as hundreds cheered for a man who is an embodiment of sporting achievement in Britain.
“In a way I’m back in the sport that I belong to,” he said. “I spent 10 years training before I broke the 4-minute mile.”
He walked down the track before handing the torch to an Oxford doctoral student who then ran a full lap wearing the white torchbearer uniform.
Bannister said he felt “right at home” on the track where he ran the mile in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds on May 6, 1954. The Iffley Road track is now called the Roger Bannister track.
“It’s an honour to be included in a list of torch carriers which has included injured soldiers back from Afghanistan and other places,” Bannister said.
Bannister, however, never won an Olympic medal, finishing fourth in the 1,500m in 1952, his only outing at the Games. (AP)